13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The eight giant steps of man, February 16, 2001
This review is from: The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Twenty-first Century (Paperback)
There are 8 crucial development stages in the history of mankind identified by Fromkin in this book. Before you can take a giant step though, you have to learn how to crawl. This is especially true if your subject is as large as universal history - the story of the world since the inception of civilization. It's appropriate then that the book begins with the origins of man.'Becoming Human' is the first of the eight steps, quickly followed by 'Inventing Civilzation'. Each step is centered on a significant human achievement; here we learn about the discovery of agriculture and the building of the first cities. Step 3 is 'Developing a Conscience' which focuses on the emergence of religions and moral systems simultaneously in separate cultures. Other steps, in order, are: 'Seeking a Lasting Peace' 'Achieving Rationality''Uniting the Planet''Releasing Nature's Energies' and lastly 'Ruling Ourselves'
With such a daunting spread of history, it's quite a challenge for Fromkin to properly explain the main elements of it to readers, to allow us to get a meaning and feel for the whole - especially if you do it in 222 pages. Fortunately the author is equal to it. He obviously had to 'cut and carve' history to fit in here. In answering questions such as - Why have some societies thrived and others disappeared? What from the past is a reliable guide to the future? - Fromkin obviously had to make some choices in the book. He admits that "telling one story necessarily means not telling another". The art of good history then is not only being aware of your biases but having sufficient style to be able to tell the story. Fromkin's style is conciseness, clarity and easy reading. He is able to contain complex ideas or events in short sentences - "the war resumed in 1939-1945 and Germany lost again" and he can describe the work of great men and women of culture in a few words. Writing about Galileo, Bacon and Descartes, he says they were "men of skepticism in thought and moderation in action".
Two recurring themes in the book are that change is the only constant throughout history and that the importance of culture (specifically religion and arts), can not be overstated.
In the last few chapters Fromkin engages in what is becoming a favorite habit of historians - crystal ball gazing, looking to the future and speculating. It's a very tricky thing to do because history is only history when it's in the past. Anyway Fromkin sounds plausible when he says that the problems of the future will be in the areas of population and the environment. Overall he is rather optimistic about our prospects, - for the US specifically and for humanity in general. The 'Way of the World' is short, concise, easy to read and a useful survey of humanity.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fromkin, the cautious optimist., March 12, 2001
This review is from: The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Twenty-first Century (Paperback)
This book is not only a brief history of humanity described in 8 grand stages but also a "how-to" book for western civilization's success in the 21st century. Very profound and insightful is the author in his interpretations of the past and in his vision of the future's possibilities. For me, this book has a permanent place in my library - a gem of a book for history buffs.
A minor suggestion is that the last two paragraphs in the book should be shifted to the front as the preface. Also, I might suggest to future readers to read the short summaries of each of the first 8 grand steps of humanity's progress located in chapter 10 or 11 before reading the main chapters themselves.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The March of Progress?, July 26, 2004
This review is from: The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Twenty-first Century (Paperback)
David Fromkin goes out in search of a useable past. Nor would he, I think, shy away from that description. He starts 'The Way of the World' with a description of a shaman "clad in bear skin" and a tale in front of the fire, telling the tribes people where they have come from and where they are heading. Fromkin's avowed purpose is to do the same for a Modern audience (p.3)
Fromkin was nominated for a Pulitzer for 'A Peace to End All Peace', the story of bravery and folly at the birth of the modern Middle East. In it, he demonstrated considerable writing skills, original thought, and enormous amount of research.
Only the first of these qualities is also apparent in 'The Way of the World'. The prose is even better this time around - but unfortunately, the other elements that made 'A Peace to End All Peace' into a near classic are missing.
'The Way of All World' seems to be based on fairly well known secondary sources. That's not necessary a bad thing, but you can feel that Fromkin is not as conversant about, say, Vasco da Gama's voyages, as he was about British Middle East policies in the 1920s.
Lack of originality in research can also be made up for in original thinking, but although Fromkin's analysis is insightful and clever it is hardly unique.
The first two parts of the book are a short history of mankind, the first chapter is about the biological evolution of homo sapiens (a well written account, drawing on such popular science books as Richard Dawkins's River Out of Eden), and the second one about pre history. Then we get two chapters on ancient civilizations, before Fromkin decides to narrow his scope and look at Western History, from the Roman Empire to the modern day.
Fromkin's is a not a very original account; although it is a break with some traditional views of European history (the Reformation is mentioned in all of four pages), it is consistent with the themes of recent books about the rise of the West, such as David Landes's 'The Wealth and Poverty of Nations'. Like Landes, Fromkin sees a triumph of the West ("the history of the modern world can be seen as the tale of how, out of the many civilizations that flourished in the year 1000, all but one succumbed in the course of the next thousand years" p. 87) caused by a 'scientific. technological and industrial revolution' (ibid). Unlike Landes, Fromkin all but ignores the importance of politics and capitalism (mentioned only 3 times in the index) to rise of European Civilization.
The third part of the book, in which Fromkin attempts to draw conclusions about the Future leaves much to be desired. Unlike Alexis do Tocqueville, whom Fromkin lionizes, Fromkin is too cautious to make predictions. He says that, at least in the beginning of the twenty first century, America will still be the most powerful country, but that is near obvious. Other predictions are equally self evident, even handed, and safe "... a central question in the politics of the twenty first century throughout the world will be the tension between holding together and pulling apart: between the centripetal pull of a modern global economy that requires regional and planetary organization, and the centrifugal push of atavistic tribalism" (p. 188).
Some six years on, it is clear that this book was published during the Clinton years. Much in the last few chapters is a hymn to American values, in particular democracy, environmentalism, secularism and multilateralism. For a liberal such as me, the importance of these values is self evident (although it should not go unquestioned). But is George W Bush's America really the best champion of these values?
Fromkin's seems oblivious to the undercurrents of American life that goes in directions opposite to the ones he champions. He discusses Woodrow Wilson's League of Nation as an embodiment of American values in International Relations. But his book is missing one crucial name: Henry Cabot Lodge, who stopped the US from entering the league of nation.
As a world leader, the United States does embody values of freedom, secularism and multilateralism. But it also has values which are unilateral, imperialistic, protectionist and isolationist. A safe prediction is that the world will be shaped significantly by the US decision of which of these sets of values, or which combination thereof, it will pursue in the 21st century.
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